Tiny insect delays lucrative China-Australia cattle trade

An insect the size of a pen tip is frustrating efforts by Australia to sign a deal, potentially worth billions of dollars, to export live cattle to China to feed its fast-growing appetite for red meat.

Talks have stalled over the presence in the Australian herd of Bluetongue disease, a virus which is spread by midges, a tiny fly. While the disease usually has little effect on cattle, it would pose a major threat to China’s 140 million-strong sheep flock, the world’s largest.

“I was hoping we could get a deal by now,” Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s agriculture minister, said. “We are on the edge of securing a deal but unfortunately in trade, you can be on the edge for quite some time.”

Shipping live animals from Australia to China has been discussed for many years. Official talks began in February and a team of Chinese scientists is currently carrying out on-site inspections, but there is no timetable for an agreement and no guarantee one will be reached.

Live exports could help curb high beef prices in China and open up a new market for Australian farmers. China’s total beef imports are expected to roughly treble to US$9 billion by 2025, according to Australian government and UN estimates.

Bluetongue, which is common in tropical and subtropical regions, was first detected in Australia about 35 years ago, and has since spread across the country’s north, carried by the blood-feeding midges.